Huldah

Josiah the king of Judah spent a good amount of his energy turning the Israelites’ eyes back to God. He was having work done on the temple when his two friends Shaphan the scribe and Hilkiah the priest found the book of the law. When it was read to Josiah the breath was almost knocked out of him because he knew that this book had been ignored for generations and heavy consequences were coming.

Hilkiah sought out the prophetess, Huldah, who had a better understanding of the heart of God than him. In short, she prophesied national ruin. Her message brought about a revival resulting in the reforms carried out by Josiah. Josiah could have consulted Jeremiah about the book of the law, but he chose Huldah, a person mentioned only this once in the Bible.

Two things stand out to me from this story. The first is God often uses the quiet unassuming people in history to change history. For example, Frances Perkins, the secretary of Labor under FDR was a major architect of the New Deal. Second, it’s so easy to forget God’s kindness to us, especially when life gets dark and obscure.

Hebrews 2:1 says, “For this reason we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift from it.” Huldah was the canary in the coal mine to warn a nation of the consequences of forgetting God.